LAHORE: An accountability court on Thursday extended for another 15 days physical remand of Lahore Development Authority’s former director general Ahad Khan Cheema and three other suspects for their alleged involvement in the Ashiana-i-Iqbal Housing Scheme scam.

Officials of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) produced Cheema and others before the court with a request to extend their physical remand.

The investigating officer told the court Cheema had disclosed his property in Islamabad but there was more land yet to be identified in the capital.

He said Cheema and his wife also maintained foreign currency accounts and important record was recovered from his laptop. He said investigation was being conducted to trace benami properties of the suspect.

The accountability court judge, Najamul Hassan, allowed the bureau’s request and extended physical remand of the suspects till May 11.

The other suspects include Bismillah Engineering Company’s owner Shahid Shafi, former officials of Punjab Land Development Company Imtiaz Haider and Bilal Qidwai.

Cheema was arrested by the NAB for misusing his authority with criminal intent and awarding Rs14 billion contracts of the Ahshiana-i-Iqbal housing scheme. It said procurement rules had been violated by the former chief of LDA.

The NAB alleged that Bismillah Engineering Services Co was a proxy firm working on behalf of Paragon City Developers (Pvt) Ltd. It said Cheema received illegal gratification in the form of 32 kanals of land from the owners of Paragon developers.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2018